Sifters

[Bigkountry]

Hey everybody, I was wondering if ya'll could tell me what design sifter works best for you and possibly point me toward some plans... Thanks

[Gatorman]

Well mine is some left over wood from an old house that was torn down and some 1/4" hardware cloth. Just screw it into a box shape cut the cloth to fit and fasten it. was pretty simple.

[tracer]

depends on whether you want it to float, like for sifting in rivers, and how big the openings in the mesh need to be for what you're trying to find. i've used cheap round colander-type kitchen screens from the store. leave those in the car all the time in case i stop somewhere and want one. for a bigger one, just make a wooden frame and tack hardware cloth or screen over it, whatever size you want. put some closed-cell foam around the frame from one of those kid's pool "noodles" if you want the screen to float. build a slightly smaller frame that "nests" inside the larger one if you want to do a double screen with bigger mesh first and the stuff that passes through it dropping down onto smaller mesh.

[Hogtownfossil]

Hey everybody, I was wondering if ya'll could tell me what design sifter works best for you and possibly point me toward some plans... Thanks

If you want something heavy duty with a large mesh, can't beat the sand flea poles; they sell them to catch fishing bait on the beaches by scooping the sand. Sure can't break 'em, but kinda cumbersome and expensive.

[Carl O'Cles]

The best thing i have found is to use plastic PVC pipes, get four straight pieces and four 90 degree angle pieces and glue them together with super glue. Use what ever size screen you want zip tie it to the PVC and then cover the sides of the pipe where the screen is exposed with duct tape so you don't cut you hands up. The PVC is great becasue it is much lighter than wood and it floats because its plastic for one and also because of the air trapped in it. Oh i almost forgot the most important piece, a piece of string to tie the sift to your side so it doesn't float away in the stream.

[Bigkountry]

Thanks for the replies and I really like the PVC idea. That's one I haven't ever heard.

[jimmy1971]

I bought a rectangle colander at Wal-Mart for under $3 and it worked great for sifting gravel bars in a creek. However, if you're gonna be in a creek or river with deeper water, I would suggest making a floating sifter with the swimming pool "water noodle" like what Tracer was talking about.

[Ronbo]

heres one I made from pvc pipe and hardware cloth, I used 1/2 inch on his one but its made for artifacts mostly thats why the 1/2 inch cloth, use the same design but smaller mesh,

[Fred]

Hey everybody, I was wondering if ya'll could tell me what design sifter works best for you and possibly point me toward some plans... Thanks

We have a sieve design on our website, which is commonly used for shark teeth. It's simple to make and quite sturdy. The explanation is in dutch, but the pictures speak for themselves:

Link (scroll down)